


Internship

by Setleth



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, no beta we die like Glenn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:40:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24175255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setleth/pseuds/Setleth
Summary: Seteth struggles to focus on his job.
Relationships: Flayn & My Unit | Byleth, Flayn & Seteth (Fire Emblem), Jeralt Reus Eisner & My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth & Seteth, My Unit | Byleth/Seteth
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	1. The Intern

"Flayn time to eat." Seteth called her over as he set up two TV trays on the couch.

"Oooh..." A young girl was laying down on her tummy on the living room floor, legs kicking the air. "I am the beginning! Super Sothis Power!" She shifted her position as the main character called out her trademark saying to begin her transformation. She was watching her favorite magical girl show. Not surprising, she didn't budge.

"You can finish your show after dinner." Her shoulders hitched up slightly, it was clear she knew he wasn't going to ask so nicely the third time. She paused the episode as she lifted herself up onto her knees, shuffling a small distance to the couch. 

"Can I watch it on the TV later?" She asked as she climbed up into her spot. She had to make it as difficult as possible of course, choosing to slip in between the TV tray and the seat cushion. Seteth had just set their TV dinners down, and his Dad senses caught on to her antics. He quickly moved for the tray and her food, moving it back slightly so she could get up safely and without any hot food spilling on her. He sighed in relief as he noticed her hair brush against the side of the table, barely missing the edge. Flayn hardly seemed to notice his efforts. Resting a hand on top of her head, he nudged it downward. "It's time to pray."

Flayn clasped her hands together tightly, knowing it was her turn to lead the prayer. "Thank you for our meal and keeping us both safe, please keep looking after Mom, Amen."

"Amen." Seteth replied.  
  
The two enjoyed their meal while Jeopardy played on the TV. "He's going to lose all his money." Flayn pointed to the man in the lead, it was already in final Jeopardy. 

"Why do you say that?" Seteth asked genuinely curious by her observation.

"That lady got it right, and now he looks nervous." she said and as if on cue, it was revealed his answer was incorrect. 

Flayn had an uncanny ability to read people, Seteth liked to think that was a reflection of her kindhearted nature. 

He looked over to see how she was doing, but noticed her prodding at her food with her fork. "Are you not hungry tonight Flayn?" His tone coming off as a little more worried than he would have liked.  
  
"The corn water got into my potatoes..." She mumbled, pushing the TV dinner tray away from her. It was not the first time she had refused dinner over the past week, Seteth wasn't sure what to do.  
  
"I see, well I'll wrap it up for later if you'd like Flayn." He picked it up off her tray, adding it to the pile of leftover TV dinners to throw away in the fridge.

\-------------------------------------------

Seteth was barely functioning the next day, several tabs with various parenting sites were pulled up on his computer all concerning the topic about refusal to eat. Absolutely none of them got him any closer to solving his problem, if he read the words 'it's just phase' or 'picky eater' one more time...  
  
"Seteth? Aren't you excited?"  
  
He had been so preoccupied with his worries he hadn't realized Alois stormed into his office at some point. "Pardon me?" 

"You heard right! My best friends daughter just received an internship here." Alois gloated to Seteth. "And on my recommendation." 

"And why are you bragging about this to me?" He was beginning to lose his patience, he had three more tabs to read over.

"Oh well, you see she'll be inputting data for your numbers, and your office space is a whole lot bigger than everyone else here, and there isn't a whole lot of room for her..." It was clear he was now picking his words carefully, but the look in Seteths eyes said he knew where this was going.

"Absolutely not." Was his work not good enough? Why would Rhea decide he needed assistance, and without speaking to him no less? And if she was working in the same room, what would he do when Flayn needed to come to work with him? His mind was spinning with excuses as to why this intern could not stay.

"Seteth come on, she needs this to finish her studies. It will only be for a few months." He tried to lighten the blow. But little seemed to be working, Seteth got up and straightened out his shirt, heading for the door.

"Just long enough to ruin my systems and throw off the numbers on the annual report. Let me talk to Rhea, it can't be too late to tell them there has been a misunderstand-" his words cut off with a sharp grunt as he bumped into a much smaller figure in the hall in all his rush. She stumbled a few feet back.

"Oh no, Miss please tell me you are alright? I'm sorry, I was in a hurry to.." He was suddenly at a loss for words when the woman looked up at him with such a hurt look in her eyes. Suddenly his co-workers words clicked, was this the intern? His stomach sank as he wondered exactly how long had she been outside his office.

She quickly recovered, standing tall and holding out her hand for him to shake. "Byleth Eisner. I'm your..." Her composure lost for a moment. "Assistant." 

Seteth adjusted his glasses slightly, before taking her hand. "Seteth Cíocal, a pleasure." He smiled politely, but then added firmly. "However, I'm afraid there has been a mistake. I was not informed of this arrangement until now and while I appreciate the offer I am not in need of assistance at this time." He realized that was a really long way of telling her she didn't have the internship after all. He face fell flat, clearly confused, until a hand snaked around her shoulder. 

"Oh Seteth! It looks like Alois and Byleth got to tell you the news before I could. Look what I found you." She hummed with excitement. 

"Rhea I really don't think this is a good idea." He tried desperately to undo this, though the look on Rhea's face said that it was as good as done.

"Please don't be like this, she's a very talented girl. I ran into an old friend of mine, and he was telling me about how she needed these last few credits to graduate."

Byleth spoke up. "I've looked everywhere for an internship and nobody will take me." She plead. "Please, I just need someone to give me a chance."

Rhea had a wide grin on her face, likely because she knew Seteths fatherly instincts would be kicking in from that statement. 

He wasn't going to get out of this.

"I warn you Miss Esiner, I have high standards." He motioned her to follow him back into his office. 

"Oh wonderful! I'll have her desk set up by tomorrow. I owe you one Seteth." Rhea waved at them both in thanks before strolling back to her office. Her comfortable, personal office. Just like the one he had, until just moments ago.

"Byleth, let me know if you need any help around here." She just nodded. Her and Aloise shared a hug before he left to return to his office. 

Seteth looked around, now alone with this stranger in _his_ office. Byleth seemed to be looking around at the space, which was mostly devoid of any decorations outside of an image of Flayn and a magnet stuck to the front of his desk that said "I'd rather be fishing". He pulled over a lone chair from the corner, setting it next to his computer. He quickly hid his tabs, like they were some sort of admittance to his failure as a father.

His entire plan for work today... for this week, had been thrown out the window just like that. Still, he was a professional, and would at least give her a chance despite his aversion to interns.

"Right, we have a lot to go through, so lets get started." 

\----------------------------------

"Welcome home By." Jeralt smiled as she walked in, he was busy at work with dinner. "I know you said you wanted to cook tonight, but I was so proud of you getting this internship I decided to cook up your favorite." 

Byleth forced a smile while she kicked off her shoes and tossed her purse onto the ground near the front door. Jeralt knew her well, concern quickly filling his mind. "Did something go wrong?" He immediately asked. 

"Oh well, sort of. I don't think my supervisor likes me." Her face twisted into a frown as she took a seat at the table. Their apartment was small, but well lived in. They had lived there for as long as she could remember, and even when she was accepted into much better schools, she decided to study locally so she could be close to her Dad. 

It had always been the two of them, and that's how she wanted to keep things.

"Someone doesn't like you? Well they obviously just need to get to know you." Jeralt reassured her. "You'll win them over in no time." 

"I hope.." Byleths lips twitched upwards slightly as she said that, Jeralt certainly catching that. He gave her a look.

"Oh no." He sounded horrified, Byleth just blushed.

"He's cute." She stretched her arms across the table and hid her face in her sleeves. "I mean really cute."

"I was afraid you were going to say that.." If there was one thing that could fluster Jeralt it was his daughter talking to him about boys she liked. In truth he was happy she was open enough with him to speak about these sorts of topics. He was protective of her, and may have scared off a few of her boyfriends when she was younger, but it was only because he couldn't stand the thought of her being hurt. 

His worry in this case was that of all the people she could have met in that office, she would fall for her supervisor. This was going to get complicated quickly. "Look, this could make or break your career so you need to keep things professional. You can look, but don't touch. Just trust me on this, whoever he is, he's not worth you losing your future." Jeralt was firm on his advice, and while Byleth nodded very seriously that she was agreeing with him.........

He could tell she hadn't been deterred. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw art of Seteth in business casual all over Twitter lately and I couldn't help myself I'm not sorry
> 
> Please go look at the art of Bunny: https://twitter.com/bunnyclvb/status/1255193125804404742?s=20
> 
> And Jojo: https://twitter.com/JojoOwltrees/status/1260692465356587008?s=20


	2. Lunch

Seteth walked into his office, and alas the previous day was no fever dream. There on the other side of the room was Byleths new desk and computer. And in front of it was Byleth, the new intern. His new intern. She waved toward him before speaking. "Good morning."

She seemed so content with this arrangement, it was almost frustrating. When he was younger, he wouldn't of been too thrilled about sharing his workspace with someone so much older than himself. Perhaps she wasn't pleased at all, sucking up to get a passing grade on her internship.

"I came in early to get a head start on recording some of the documents you request sir." He suddenly felt very old by being called 'sir', but tried to not act surprised at her eagerness. She motioned him over, and Seteth walked over, leaning down and adjusting his glasses to see her screen. Byleth was holding her breath, studying his face as he looked over her work.

" Mmm..." He scrolled up, then down. Then up again, down once more. After what seemed like forever in silence, Seteth finally responded. "The numbers look alright, but where did you get this formatting?"

"I made it." She proclaimed proudly.

"But this isn't how I asked you to do it." He looked at her peering over his glasses. 

"But everything you need is there. And this is much faster to input." She argued.

"Yes, I see that. However, our office has a very specific format for documents like these."

She furrowed her brows in frustration, his matter of fact replies were not helping the matter. "Sir, do you mean that *you* have a specific way of formatting these documents?" 

Seteth stared her down for a few moments before reaching for the pile of papers on her desk. "Very well, then I shall enter these in correctly if you do not wish to-". His thought was cut off as Byleth quickly flung her hands onto the edges of the stack, keeping him from taking them.

"Wait!" She blurted out, surprising Seteth. "Please. I'll do it right this time."

Seteth's grasp on the paper pile loosened, before letting the edge he grabbed fall back down onto the desk. "Very well, have this whole stack done by lunch."

\--------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the morning went by quietly, perhaps too quiet as Byleth had her headphones plugged in. Every time he looked back she was tapping her toe to whatever beat she was listening to, or her head bounced from side to side, whispering lyrics. 

Seteth had to admit this could have been much worse than it was. Byleth was endearing in her own way, despite her insistent nature. He didn't have much room to talk in that department, with him making her redo a whole lot of work she had come in early to enter. He felt a little guilty over it, but it was important things were done correctly, not just quickly.

"Sir?" Her voice startled him out of his own thoughts, she looked back at the eager looking intern. 

"You do not need to call me 'Sir'." 

"Mr. Cíocal?" She tried to imitate the way he had spoken it to her, and she had it correct. One of the few people that hadn't botched his last name. 

"Seteth is fine.." He cleared his throat. "Now Miss Eisner, what was it that you needed?" He looked confused as her face soured. 

"That isn't fair." she pointed at him, he wasn't sure what he had done wrong until she spoke up again. "Seteth is fine then you go and call me Miss Eisner? Byleth is fine." She parroted him.

"Miss Esin-" He was cut off before replying.

"Byleth." She corrected.

"BYLETH. Please tell me what your question was? I have a lot to catch up on." He was quickly losing his patience with her, tapping a finger on the back of his chair. 

She pulled out a earbud from her right ear while asking. "I got into the zone, and I finished up re-entering everything. Can you check it for me?" Seteth's first instinct was to look at the clock... it was only 10 AM, had she really blazed through all of her morning workload so quickly?

Byleth froze slightly when he leaned over her work station as he did earlier in the day, but this time he reached around her to use the mouse. His arm brushed against her back and almost in turn she could feel her face become flush.

"Miss Esiner are you alright?" He asked, wondering if he had done something wrong. She just shook her head and replied "It's Byleth." 

Seteth let out a soft 'hmm' under his breath, refocusing on checking her work. He looked it over again and again to try to find some errors, but everything had checked out. She was fast, efficient. Everything he could wish for in an assistant.

He hated being wrong, but he was the type of man to give credit where credit was due. "Very good work, I'm impressed." He gave a nod of approval, his hand moving away from the mouse and letting his guard down for just long enough to give a genuine smile. The only way he even knew that had happened was by Byleth's reaction.

"Wow." Byleth said with an awe-struck look on her face. Oh this was getting awkward really quick. How on earth had his response warranted that? He adjusted his tie, trying to hide his insecurity. 

"Are you alright?" He asked mostly to fill the void of silence. 

"Y-yeah." Byleth stumbled over her words, quickly adding. "I'm just happy I got you as my supervisor." 

It was suddenly getting very warm in the office. Seteth covered his mouth with his hand, glancing back towards his desk and moving himself back to his chair. "Right well, since you were done early, you may go to lunch early if you'd like."

"Oh, okay." Byleth moved herself around so she could see Seteth. She just started without saying anything for awhile. Seteth could feel himself being watched. 

"Hey Seteth?" She finally asked after what seemed like forever. His shoulders hitched up slightly.

"Yes?"

"What restaurants would you recommend around here for lunch?"

Seteth looked up towards the ceiling as he recalled the various lunches he's been dragged to. "Well we go to a buffet place whenever there are faculty lunches, that way there is something for everyone. It's at the end of the street." He nudged his glasses slightly, less because he needed to and more because for some reason talking to Byleth so casually was leaving him fidgety. 

"Oh, well I guess what I meant is what is a place that you like going to?" She prodded further, leaning against her chair with a knee on her seat. He seemed taken aback by her question.

"Where I like going?" He only thought for a short time before answering. "There is a seafood place two blocks away. It takes a little time to get there, but it's not that busy because it's out of the way of most of the nearby office buildings." As he was talking he could hear Byleth putting on her coat and retrieving her purse. He found himself holding his breath when he spotted out of the corner of his eye, Byleth standing next to his desk. 

"Want to go out to lunch? I hear there is a great seafood place not too far from here." Her delivery was so deadpan, he was impressed. And he realized he had walked right into her trap.

"Thank you for the offer, but I already brought a lunch today." He politely declined. 

"It's on me." she urged him. "Please? It's the least I can do for, how did you put it? Ruining your systems and throwing off the numbers on the annual report?"

"Wait, you overheard me talking to Alois yesterday?" He looked mortified, and had expected as much, but he certainly wasn't expecting to get called out.

"Mhmm." She nodded, heading towards the door. "Now lets get going."

He wasn't going to get out of this.

\------------------------------------------------------

"Good Morning Seteth! You are early today." Byleth was surprised, the server knew him by name. Had he undersold exactly how much he came to this place?

"Hello Annette, table for two please." He offered the young girl a polite nod.

"Two? Is Flayn with you today?" She glanced past him to spot Byleth, her eyes widening in shock. "Oh! Um... hello." The girl chuckled nervously, glancing curiously between them. Seteth spoke up quickly. 

"This is my intern, her name is Byleth. She wished to have lunch together today, so I thought it would be nice to walk down here." Seteth explained in the most platonic way possible. Which apparently wasn't enough for Annette.

"Miss Byleth, you must be doing something right!" She pointed at Seteth and said. "I remember him telling me once he *never* brought over co-workers, because they would start coming here and disrupt his quiet lunch times." She laughed. 

Seteths face reddened, and Byleth couldn't help but join Annette in her laughter which only resulted in her supervisor's face somehow turning an even brighter red. "Is that so? Well I'll make sure not to get too in the way." She teased, nudging him with her elbow as they approached a small table on the balcony.

"Here you are, Miss Byleth please take your time in looking over our menu. Seteth, do you want your usual?" She asked.

"Yes of course, thank you Annette."

Byleth held out the menu and quickly added. "I'd like to try his 'usual' if that's alright? And some iced tea." Annette retrieved her menu, glancing at Seteth with a raised eyebrow and a smirk as she walked away.

Seteth clasped his hands in front of him on the table, uncertain of what to talk or say. though something on them certainly caught Byleths eye... A ring.

He wasn't wearing it yesterday, at least she didn't remember seeing it. She felt the color drain from her face, had she been hitting on a married man all today? What must he think of her, that she was homewrecker? She had to fix this and quick. 

"So um, tell me a bit about yourself. You have a family, right?" She asked as Annette returned with their drinks. She gave Seteth a supportive, but worried smile as she walked away.

Byleth looked at him, confused as to what that was about. 

"Ah, well... yes. I have a daughter." He cleared his throat, taking a sip from his lemonade. "Her name is Flayn, I have a picture of her on my desk that you may have seen." 

Byleth nodded, waiting for him to go on. 

"I um, have two brothers." He added, seeming reluctant to talk about any of this. "My youngest brother goes to GMU as well, he's an art major." 

"Oh! One of my best friends is an art major, maybe she knows him." Byleth hummed in thought. "Actually, maybe not.. she's incredibly shy. I have no idea how she's made it this far in college."

Seteth grinned at her friends description. "Is that so? Perhaps they would get along, my brother is talented with anything creative but talking with others has always been a challenge."

Byleth listened, uncertain when Seteth seemed to neglect to talk about his wife. She wondered if it was a sore subject, or perhaps something had happened to her. Would it be too forward to come out and ask? The silence between them was broken by Annette serving them their dinner.

"Here you are, two Seteth Specials!" She giggled. "They aren't really called that, I just made that up." She seemed the need to clarify. This server was adorable. "I'll be right over there if you want dessert."

"Thank you." they both said almost at the same time, though as Byleth immediately began to dig into her food, she noticed Seteth took a moment to pray. She let her fork rest on her plate as she lowered her head as well. When Seteth looked back up, he had such a kind smile on his face, apologetic. Byleth was uncertain how to respond, and quickly went back to eating her meal.

He seemed like a nice person to hang out with. A very considerate man. She wanted to know everything about him, but it would be strange to keep pestering him. To her surprise however, he made the next move in their conversation.

"And how about your family Miss Esiner?" He asked with the slightest of head tilts, his hair falling slightly into his face. It was endearing.

"Oh I um-" It was at times like these she realized how very small her family was. "I have my Father. He worked for Rhea a long time ago, that's how he became such good friend with Alois, and how I got my internship." Her voice lowering slightly at the last part. "Alois is as close as I've ever had to an extended family. Oh and Leonie is my Dad's apprentice. She feels like a bratty little sister at times, she's very competitive with me." She took a moment to eat a few bites of her batter covered fish. "My Mom died when I was born, so it's just been me and Dad and our found family."

"Well there is nothing wrong with found family, there is little difference between blood ties and those you've chosen to have." He dabbed his lips with a napkin, seeming in thought for a moment. "If you don't mind me asking... how have you managed without your Mother?" 

Byleth seemed taken off guard by the question. "Um.."

"My apologies if that seemed too personal." He hesitated to elaborate, but didn't want to seem inconsiderate. "The reason I ask is because my Wife passed a few years ago, and I've been very worried about Flayn." He explained. "You two have a rather unfortunate commonality.." 

Byleth stopped him. "No, it's okay. I think I understand now." She really shouldn't be this relieved to hear someone was dead, but it *did* mean she was almost a homewrecker. Still, he was seeking her advice so she thought in earnest about his question.

"I didn't understand what was going on when I was really young. I think it was hardest as a teenager though. My Dad did everything for me and I wouldn't change anything about my childhood, but I had to teach myself a lot about womanly things." She took a break to finish up her meal. Seteth seemed conflicted by her words.

"What I can tell you is... even if I didn't always show it, I always appreciated what my Dad did for me." She sipped from her tea, trying to hide the fact that she was watching the warm grin on his face.

"Thank you Byleth." He sounded a little more relieved as Annette set the bill in front of him. He quickly swiped it off the table and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. "This has been a very enjoyable lunch, but I'm afraid I should be getting back to work now."

"Wait! I said it was my treat." She protested trying to reach the check, though he only held it even further out of her reach. 

"Please let me pick up the check as a thank you for putting up with my demands this morning." He chucked, slipping a credit card into the check folder and closing it before she could see the cost of the meal. She wondered if it was really that much?

"Ah.. okay." she said defeated as she got up from her seat. "Well I guess I'll go study some before class. Thank you for the lunch, and for giving me a chance. I'll see you tomorrow morning." Seteth just waved as she left the restaurant, Annette who at the register joyfully wishing her a good day as she left. 

The entire way to campus Byleth couldn't wipe the grin off her face.


End file.
